Thomas Bush's '65 Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-4-2

"I only intended to add a camshaft and lifters, fix the clutch, and paint it black," reports Tom Bush of his bad '65 Olds 4-4-2. Things got way out of control very quickly; no panel was left untouched, no detail unexecuted. Still, we were a little taken aback when we first heard the dollar figure: One hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars. Chew on that for a minute. Then ask yourself...

Where did all the money go?

So we asked. First, there is the car itself. What you see started out as a factory four-speed that Bush found in unrestored condition, right down to its wire hubcaps, on a farm in Iowa; it reminded him of the black-and-red four-speed 4-4-2 he had as a youth, which was wrecked just two years after purchase. This particular example--a cream-and-blue virgin rotten only around the trunk area--looked pretty good for a three-and-a-half-decade-old snow-belt veteran. Purchase price was $5,500.

Out came the original 400, the Muncie four-speed, and the 3.55:1 rear. In went a pumped-up Rocket Autos (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) 462, a NASCAR-spec G-Force four-speed (2.94 First), and a rare aluminum W27 '70 Olds rear housing with 3.91s supplied (and cryogenically treated) by Joe Mondello. The centersection alone ran $3,250. The axle was too wide to accept the already-built custom-machined 17-inch HRE three-piece alloy rims, so the housing was narrowed (by Moser) 6 inches to keep the tires tucked in under the bodywork. Moser supplied new axles as well. L'Cars, the Cameron, Wisconsin-based classic car resto outfit responsible for large portions of what you see before you, also had to modify the axle's mounting brackets for the Wilwood rear disc brakes. Luckily, the springs and trailing arm locations were on the money.

The exhaust alone cost Bush more than the purchase price of the entire car. The first set of pipes was tossed when it didn't meet the shop's expectations. The second set, on the car now, is a Torque-Tech system with 3-inch pipes, three-chamber Dynomax mufflers, and custom polished stainless steel chambered exhaust ends (about 2 feet long each) designed to look like the originals (but measuring out at 3 inches in diameter rather than the stock 2-1/4). The upper front control arm punctured one of the powdercoated Hooker long-tube headers; L'Cars recontoured the header tube and sent the whole unit back to Hooker for re-powdercoating. The stainless tips ran $1,900, including a first batch that didn't turn out quite right. Ouch.

Inside was modeled after a BMW M5 sedan; Recaro Trend chairs covered in red and black leather match the reupholstered rear bench and replace the factory-issued blue vinyl pieces. Drilled aluminum bits include pedals and Momo shift knob. The four-point rollbar is also wrapped in leather and is there mainly to give the belts a decent anchor point. The rest of the interior is red NOS material and lit by indirect neon lighting. Perhaps in a nod to the original interior color, the five-point Simpson harnesses are blue. Ancillary AutoMeter gauges dot the dash (except for the eight-grand tach, which is VDO). Oh, and there's the stereo: 650 watts' worth of Sony voice-activated head unit (mounted behind the factory 8-track stereo facade, for that "period" look), 10-CD changer, 6-minidisc changer, and nine--count 'em, nine--speakers dotted about the interior, from the dash to the A-pillar to the parcel shelf.

Besides righteous stereo gear, the trunk is also home to both batteries (with its leather-trimmed 18-gauge-steel NHRA-spec case) and a nitrous bottle. And the body wears multiple coats of Spies-Hecker black, with an ASC sunroof and a hole in the hood for the Hemi 'Cuda-style Shaker scoop. Still, $164,000? "I've actually got more than $200,000 in it," Tom later admits after tallying up his Visa bill. A quick chat with the folks at L'Cars, who ended up with the vast majority of the above- mentioned bread, reveals that much of what you see here was booked on the fly... actually having a plan (and sticking with it) probably would have saved a few grand.

All of this adds weight, of course... Tom figures they bolted on another 500 pounds in power-sapping weight, between the rollbar, stereo and the sunroof and all of the other extras... the 4-4-2 now carries a fairly porcine 4,050 pounds without driver. Still, with a new set of Mondello-prepped Edelbrock heads (installed after these photos were taken), this car has run 11.37/118 on the juice--bumping the rev-limiter through the lights. By the time you read this, a Holley 1,050-cfm carb should be in place, and 10-second timeslips should be in the bag.